Four years after the last cinema in Ealing closed the borough is to get a £100 million “Film Quarter” complete with a multiplex cinema, film museum and art studios.
Around 80 flats, new cafes, bars and restaurants will also be built in the major redevelopment of the New Broadway site in the centre of Ealing. The two acre venue has lain unused since the last of the borough’s cinemas The Forum Picture Palace closed in 2008.
Developer Land Securities is behind the scheme which will create new open pedestrian streets and a Cinema Square and a throughfare from New Broadway through to Bond Street. The square will have a giant video wall and be available for events and concerts.
The site is currently owned by Empire Cinemas which demolished the two cinemas four years ago but failed to redevelop it. In July the council gave Empire an October deadline to start its proposed scheme or face a compulsory purchase order.
Empire did not make the deadline and the council is now going ahead with Land Securities.
Councillor Julian Bell, leader of Ealing Council, said: “We gave Empire every opportunity to build a new cinema and yet four years later the site is still derelict.
“We are not listening to any more excuses and are now progressing to develop the new quarter that Ealing has long been waiting for.”
